All posts tagged pop culture

The Oxford Dictionaries named “vape” the English-language word of 2014, saying that the term for smoking an electronic cigarette has doubled its use from the past year. The Chinese-speaking world apparently had weightier matters in mind this year. Read More »

Known more for saccharine tunes than its Psy-style swagger, Chinese pop has never had much of a place in the global sun. Over the weekend, though, the industry got a boost when a Chinese duo, the Chopstick Brothers, took home an award at the 2014 American Music Awards for their virally infectious song, “Little Apple.” Read More »

Eighteen years after her death, Taiwanese pop diva Teresa Teng, one of Asia’s most-loved performers, made a surprise return to the stage in Taipei over the weekend with the help of California-based multimedia company Digital Domain 3.0 Inc. Read More »

A new front has opened in the great Asian factory pop wars with the first ever arrival in Japan of a Taiwanese female idol group. Their secret weapon: weather reporting skills.

The group, Weather Girls, made their debut in 2010 on an Internet news station run by Next TV Broadcasting Limited in Taiwan. Every day, one member introduces herself and dances seductively in costume while information about weather from around the world is displayed on screen. The regular line-up has an AKB48-sized rotating roster, but the Japan group will feature only seven members, one for each day of the week. Read More »

Hong Kong pop star Anthony Wong kept his revelation for the end of the concert. Then, before thousands of fans, lit by a single pool of spotlight, Mr. Wong put an end to years of public speculation. “People don’t need to guess whether or not I’m a tongzhi [Chinese slang for homosexual] anymore,” he said on the last night of his concert series at the Hong Kong Coliseum earlier this week. “I’m saying, I’m gay. I’m a homosexual. G-A-Y.”

Whoops and cheers from the crowd greeted the announcement by the singer and producer, who followed his announcement with a roguish jab at the city’s paparazzi. “I’m sorry, members of the media. For the next 20 years, I’ll keep singing songs, but you don’t need to ask me this question any longer,” he declared. Read More »

Ms. Hong, a Malaysian-born architect who goes by the name Red, studied at the University of Melbourne and moved to Shanghai last May to work for Australian architecture firm Hassell. There, she began paying attention to the athletes, artists and other celebrities that captivated Chinese people. “Living here is such a different experience,” she said. “I wanted to explore the cultural elements.” Read More »

The much-rumored Chinese remake of “Gossip Girl” is officially on its way. In an interview last week on the web show “Thoughtful China,” Larry Namer, head of Metan Development Group, the Beijing-Hollywood company behind the show, shared a few details about the upcoming series, talking about the sponsors it might attract and how the current U.S. show is so appealing to Chinese youth. Read More »

Liu Wei’s feet are proving to be powerful in a country renowned for caring more about face.

The 23-year-old armless pianist, who uses his toes to tickle the ivories, was declared the winner of the reality TV competition “China’s Got Talent.” The show’s judges and audience members unanimously voted Wei the champion after his pedi-led solo performance in the Sunday finale of the show’s first season.

Wei, who lost his arms at age 10 after accidentally touching a high-voltage wire in a game of hide-and-seek, may be in for a major life change. His victory in the contest means he gets to tour with Taiwan singer Jolin Tsai, including a three-month gig in Las Vegas, and possibly even record his own album.

But the Beijing native’s triumph might also alter the future of Chinese television. Read More »

Expert Insight

New rules on labor negotiations in southern China offer a potential solution to the country's growing problem with labor unrest while at the same time illustrating the difficulty the Communist Party faces in effectively addressing workers’ grievances.

For much of the last half-century, changing China through economic reform seemed to make far better sense than transforming the country through political revolution. Xi Jinping is trying to flip that on its head.

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